James joined the IFS in 2005 and is a senior research economist working in the Direct Tax and Welfare Sector. His research focuses on the impact of the personal tax and benefit system on families' incomes and their incentives to work, save and invest. In particular, he is currently examining the reponsiveness of high-income individuals to recent changes in income tax rates, the impact of the government's benefit reforms on work incentives and is involved with projects projecting incomes and poverty rates for different groups over the next decade. He has also investigated the impact of welfare to work policies such as In Work Credit on the employment rates of lone parents and is currently part of a project investigating whether these policies have longer term effects.